The Underground
by RinKotv
Summary: Whenever she would take one step towards him, he'd be another few ahead. She just wanted to be near him, but he had his eyes on a bigger prize. [Farlan/OC]


_**I DO NOT OWN FARLAN CHURCH OR ANYTHING FROM SNK.**_

The Underground District was dark even in the midday hours. Shadows fell over the streets, where the poor lay begging, where the sick lay dying, and the rich walk carefree. Now mid-afternoon, the underground city was still. The shadows were a perfect cover. Of ugly intentions from thieves, who lay in the most hidden crevices, or for the rats that were hunted by the starving who had nothing better to eat.

Yulia lay in her bed which overlooked such dark streets. She woke up with a gasp, from a dream of chasing something just beyond her reach.

"Yulia?"

Her brown eyes looked at his handsome blue ones. She liked them because they were pale and light. Just like she imagined the sky would look.

She didn't like her own, because they were dark and brown. Just like everything else in the Underground District.

The room was small, but enough to house a single tenant. From here she could listen to the rumbling of the streets and the clattering of horse's hooves. However, the room was bare. She didn't have extra money to adorn it, and so it remained empty.

Farlan sat at the end of her bed, in the process of putting his shoes on. She reached over, her fingers touching his knuckles. When his expression softened, she smiled.

When she spoke, her voice was quiet and slurred with sleep. "Where are you going?"

"You were resting, so I figured I'd get back to work."

She watched as he turned back to his shoes, tying them. "It's late for that."

"It's mid-afternoon."

She rolled over towards him. She held his hand so that he couldn't tie his laces. "You should rest too. You're always busy."

He pulled her hand away gently, patiently. "Can't. There's something I've been meaning to do."

"Then I will go with you," she beamed as she sat up in bed, the covers falling to her lap.

He frowned, but he was sure to keep his expression gentle. "No."

She watched as he stood, crossing to the other side of the room. "Why?"

"Don't you remember last time?" he asked, hovering in the doorway with his hand on the knob.

Yulia looked at her hands, curling them in her lap. That's right. After all, her legs are bad. She can't run. She'll make them get caught by the Military Police unless Farlan carries her over his shoulder again.

The way he frowned, with his eyebrows pulled down, made her feel very small. She finally admitted, "We don't get to see each other like we used to."

"Medicine is expensive," he explained, like always, "If you don't get help…"

"My legs will get worse." She fell back onto the bed, pale blond hair splayed over the worn pillow, and she said, "Medicine won't help."

His voice deepened. "Yulia."

She stared at the ceiling. He stared at the floor. Then he said, "I found someone."

"Someone?" she repeated, surprised.

"I see this guy around a lot. He's strong."

She propped herself on her elbow. "You're going to ask for his help?"

"I'm going to challenge him. It's the only way to see what he's capable of."

She grinned. "Come back with some strawberries."

His serious expression changed to a comical but exasperated one. "Those are insanely expensive."

"That can be his challenge. Have him get me strawberries." She was joking, and she saw his mouth twitch.

"I'll see what I can do. Wait for me, alright?" Then he left.

She always did. That's all she could do.

Yulia looked at the wooden door for a long time. It was quiet and she didn't like it. Even when they weren't talking, just being with Farlan was enough, but when he was gone the small room seemed too large and empty. She wasn't used to feeling lonely; before her legs went bad, she would always be in the streets. She only came to this place to sleep; she was always out doing something, not wasting away in her bed.

Now she was trapped, stuck to her room. She always hated these walls. There were walls everywhere, and she could not escape them, even if she somehow made it above ground. She lay looking at the ceiling, collapsed on her mattress. She wanted to go outside.

She fought back the tears and willed for Farlan to come back, but knew that he wouldn't.

...

Somehow Levi agreed to Farlan's terms. When Farlan told her the story, she knew he was exaggerating it because he never gave her a clear answer on how it happened. But Levi was to be respected, he said. Levi seemed to be very independent and strong for Farlan to look up to him so dearly.

"Can I meet him?" she asked one day, while Farlan dropped off some money for her.

"He doesn't know I'm doing this for you." He waved the bills before placing them in a cabinet drawer. "I don't know how he'll react."

"If he's anything like you said he is, he'll understand." She tried to smile, but she saw the unfamiliar pull of Farlan's mouth and eyebrows. Yulia paused for a moment, watching Farlan's strange expression. Flat, empty. "Are you okay?"

"I'm always okay." He smiled, but not his usual one.

He couldn't stay long. He never could. When he walked across the room again, he paused at the door. He finally said, "Levi and I found a place. We'll be staying there while we pick up jobs."

"Is it far?"

"Yeah, it's far. We're busy too, so I won't be able to visit often."

She studied his handsome features. Surely he heard her heart breaking. "That's okay, as long as I get to see you sometimes."

When he looked at her, he had a very strong, determined glint in his eyes. Those light blue eyes she loved so dearly. "I'll keep my promise and take care of you."

She tried to smile but found the effort too great. "I know."

...

He kept his promise. He always did. When her legs kept getting worse, he would give her bigger payments. She wanted to refuse them, but he would insist and keep giving her more. She wondered if he did so because he cared for her, or if he was just keeping his promise to her brother. They were of the same group after all, before her brother was shot and killed by the Military Police.

Then, one day, Farlan stopped coming. She was worried, but didn't hear anything bad happening to him from the shopkeepers. When she was outside on the streets, moving slowly to the venders, her legs in pain and weak, she asked about him a lot. Merchants shook their heads, they didn't know either. When she sat in the corner begging for change, no one could say.

Finally, one man said he saw the Survey Corps take him above ground. Fearing the worst, she hoped he wasn't tried for his crimes as a thug. They wouldn't understand, the people of the above ground cities, where there was the sun and the grass and the trees. They couldn't understand this sort of life, and what was needed to survive.

She laid in her bed and looked at the ceiling. All that was left was to wait and see if he would come back.


End file.
